NAME

       rpl — replace strings in files

SYNOPSIS

       rpl [-LhiwbqvsRepfdt] [-xSUFFIX] ⟨old_string⟩ ⟨new_string⟩ ⟨target_file ...⟩

DESCRIPTION

       Basic  usage is to specify two strings and one or more filenames or directories on the command line.  The
       first string is the string to replace, and the second string is the replacement string.

       -h, --help
               A short help text.

       -L, --license
               Show the license and exit.

       -xSUFFIX
               Search only files ending with SUFFIX, e.g.  “.txt”.  May be specified multiple times.

       -i, --ignore-case
               Ignore the case of old_string.

       -w, --whole-words
               Make old_string match only on word boundaries.

       -b, --backup
               Move the original files to filename~ before replacing them.

       -q, --quiet
               Quiet mode.

       -v, --verbose
               Verbose mode.

       -s, --dry-run
               Simulation mode, no files are changed.

       -R, --recursive
               Recurse into subdirectories.

       -e, --escape
               Expand escape sequences in old_string and new_string.  Examples  of  escape  sequences  are  ‘\n’
               (new-line), ‘\t’ (tab), ‘\x42’ (hexadecimal number 42), ‘\033’ (octal number 033).

       -p, --prompt
               Prompt for confirmation before replacing each file.

       -f, --force
               Ignore errors when trying to restore permissions and file ownership.

       -d, --keep-times
               Keep modification times when replacing files.

       -t, --use-tmpdir
               Use  a  temporary  directory  for  storing  temporary files, usually the value of the environment
               variable TMPDIR.  The default is to put temporary files in the same directory as the  file  being
               modified.

       -a, --all
               Do not ignore files and directories starting with .

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

       An  effort  has  been made to make the program behave as much as the original rpl as necessary.  Where it
       has been possible to make improvements, improvements have been made.  This implementation lacks  many  of
       the bugs in the original.

EXAMPLES

       Replace  all  occurences  of  “F”  (on  word  boundaries)  with  “A”  in all text files under the grades/
       directory:
             $ rpl -Rwd -x'.txt' 'F' 'A' grades/

SEE ALSO

       find(1), sed(1).

HISTORY

       This program was written for Debian as a free replacement for the non-free rpl program by Joe Laffey.

AUTHORS

       Göran Weinholt <weinholt@debian.org>.

Debian                                            July 31, 2005                                           RPL(1)